Herman-Van-Rompuy-has-urged-auditors-to-cover-up-EU-spending-in-order-to-stop-bad-press Herman Van Rompuy has urged auditors to cover up EU spending in order to stop bad press

In an extraordinary plea, the EU president said their annual scathing reports on poor management of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash spent through European schemes should be “more nuanced” to avoid bad headlines.

The public must be taught to see Europe as a solution, not the source of problems, he said.

UK Independence Party leader and MEP Nigel Farage branded the speech an “incredible” attempt to muzzle the auditors. He said: “This makes clear for all to see that the EU loves corruption and hates transparency.

“Instead of wishing to clean it up the EU wishes to hush it up.

“The Court of Auditors, which has not signed off the EU accounts for 18 years, is asked to go easy and provide good PR only for the EU. In which other banana republic in the world would the ­president publicly call for less exposure of waste of ­taxpayers’ money?”

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Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: “The man in charge invokes Euro idealism to try to get us to turn a blind eye to dodgy account keeping by his own Eurocrats. In doing so he discredits the very system he seeks to defend.”

Tory MEP Marta Andreasen, the European Commission’s former chief accountant, declared: “Van Rompuy trying to blame the auditors for the EU’s disastrous public image is like a bad workman blaming his tools for shoddy work. The EU does not ­properly control taxpayers’ money. It gives out bags of money without proper checks and wastes millions on vanity projects.”

The auditors have for the past 18 years failed to approve about 90 per cent of the EU’s accounts for more than £110 billion a year in spending.

A UK Government source said: “The way to get positive headlines is to follow Prime Minister David Cameron’s ­example and stop tolerating the EU’s lax attitude to taxpayers’ money.”